Federal tax system for the 1980s;

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A Federal Tax
System
for the 1980s.
by WILLIAM L. RABT/ Senior Tax Partner
Too often the tax professional is
viewed as being engaged
//merely"in trying to obtain
special tax benefits for his clients-finding
loopholes, seeking some
modicum of support for far-out tax
positions, acting as a taxpayer advocate
in tax controversies. Any such descrip­tion
displays a shallow understanding of
both the professional's role and how
the U.S. tax system works.
The tax system is complex and ever
changing, because legislators and
administrators alike have found it the
most responsive and efficient way of
fine-tuning the American economy, of
meeting the volatile needs and desires
of the American taxpayer/voter.
Therefore, before discussing the future
effectiveness of our tax system, I'd like
to discuss briefly the social significance
of the existing system and the CPAs role
in that system.
How vital is the role that the tax
practitioner plays in the system? Let us
use the example of a subsidy program
that the government sets up to stimu­late
the purchase of energy conserving
devices. Setting up such a subsidy
program would be a time-consuming
and administratively expensive task.
First, enabling legislation would have to
be passed. Then an appropriation
would be required. Either an existing
agency would have to staff-up to meet
the demands of this new program or a
new agency would need to be brought
into existence. Regulations would have
to be written and application forms and
procedures adopted. The first requests
for the subsidy money might take quite
some time to process. Perhaps two
years after the legislation was proposed,
an actual program might be in opera­tion—
by which time the energy
problem would have passed beyond
the point where that program would be
of any help.
Contrast this with using the tax
system to provide this subsidy either
through a deduction or a credit. The
minute a program was proposed, tax
people would start monitoring on
behalf of their clients. The enactment